NOT like site - Post #4, history of the site

Finding historical information on my "not like" site's current incarnation has proven more difficult than I would have originally thought given that public art project are usually very well documented.

I have been able to find information on prior uses of the site going back over 100 years based on information on the site provided by the local heritage council.


This information sign, part of the Richmond Heritage Walk, shows the area immediately surrounding the site in the 19th Century but not the site itself. It does however indicate that in circa 1876 the site was most likely a part of the grounds of sixteen room mansion, Yalcowinna.



Yalcowinna, was built in 1867 by business man, politician, and land speculator William Highett. The grounds of the mansion, which is now part of Epworth Hospital, comprised a four-stall stable, three looseboxes, two coachhouses, a man’s room, a hayloft and wood and coal sheds.



From a plaque I was able to learn that a building on the site had housed Melbourne's first cable tram engines had been constructed there in 1885. That the building had later been extended to house a station for the electric tramway, which replaced the pioneer cable line in 1927. The buildings were both demolished in 1991 for road intersection improvements.

With that knowledge I have been able to hunt down a photo and drawing from the Richmond Library showing the site.



The photo that has the caption 'A tramways engine for cable cars at Richmond'. The engine house for cable cars was on the corner of Bridge Rd and Hoddle Street.



From the drawing, that is presumed to be from a newspaper, I get a better idea of what the structure would have looked like and how it would have worked.


I also found another photo that shows the site in 1978 the site as the "Melbourne Forklift Company".

Contemplating the uses of the site since the 1880s to at least the late 1970s one of the common themes, which in many ways continues is the sites connection to noise and machinery. Whether it be engine houses for trams or forklifts.

I have found a couple of clues relating to how the site came to look as it currently does but I am still in the process of hunting them down.

Having found out more about the previous uses of the site I find the site itself more interesting but like the current works on the site even less because they don't in any way engage or reflect that history.